Being the amazing, true-to-life adventures and (very likely) misadventures of a writer who seeks to take his education, activism and seemingly boundless energy to North Minneapolis, (NoMi) to help with a process of turning a rapidly revitalizing neighborhood into something approaching Urban Utopia. I am here to be near my child. From 02/08 to 06/15 this blog pushed free speech to the envelope, so others could take heart and speak unafraid. Email me at hoffjohnw@gmail.com

Slumlord issues aside, I am immediately jealous of Superior and Douglas County. The county website allows users to search property ownership - are you ready for this? - BY THE NAME OF THE PROPERTY OWNER! This is something the Hawthorne Neighborhood and the JNS blog have been calling out as a needed tool in Minneapolis for a LONG time (beginning on this blog in a post about "The devil" retreating to a house only a few blocks away, but we did not KNOW this for several months). On a personal note, I grew up in Michigan, now (obviously) live in Minnesota, and cheer for the Chicago Bears when I watch football. Do you have ANY IDEA how much it bothers me that Wisconsin is ahead of us on ANYTHING?!

Also, you can click on prior years of taxes to see the full amount owed, without having to go to the Superior, WI government center. Minneapolis and Hennepin, we're behind the curve here. I cannot stress this enough, folks: WE ARE LOSING TO WISCONSIN!

Here's what the Superior website tells us about Bashir Moghul (among others)......by "among others," I am also including several other people with the last name Moghul: Fasil, Nazir, and Shaista. These three Moghuls have shown up on property ownership lists as either co-owners with Bashir or show up as owners of properties that other NoMi residents have told me are Bashir Moghul properties.

My one criticism of the website is that it does not create live links once criteria has been searched for and found. But if you were to go here and search yourself, this is what you'd find (at least today).

Bashir owns 428 Winter St, Superior WI, and owes taxes on it since 2006. The back taxes there total $8,235.65. The mailing address listed here is 1437 Gardena Ave NE, Fridley MN. Bashir and Lucille Moghul are listed as the taxpayers for this property.

And he hasn't paid his 2009 taxes there either. That's $3,158.88.

The address used as a contact address for most of Bashir's properties in Minneapolis is 648 Iona Ln, Roseville MN. Ramsey County's website is experiencing difficulties at the time of this post and does not display tax payment information. However, the website does list the taxpayers as Manzoor and Mahroof Moghul.

The Douglas county website also apparently does not provide street addresses to vacant property, which is another problem (although if the property is rural enough and undeveloped, it's quite possible that a street address does not yet exist). Moghul tends to buy up vacant lots and then not pay taxes on them for a very long time, often losing them to tax forfeiture. The irony here is that taxes on a vacant lot cost only a few hundred dollars a year. It really shouldn't be that hard to keep up with that.

In lieu of street addresses, I will provide parcel numbers for the Douglas County properties owned by Moghul that have back taxes on them.

07-807-00805-00 owes taxes for four years at $1,197.19OA-022-00207-00 owes taxes for four years at $6,289.8201-801-01273-00 owes taxes for four years at $1,909.9601-801-01277-00 owes taxes for four years at $1,371.2001-801-01001-00 owes taxes for four years at $2,424.78

And that does it for the Douglas County, WI properties currently owned by Bashir Moghul that are not currently current on taxes. We're now up to a total of $147,448.99 in back taxes confirmed as owed by Bashir Moghul. JNS readers are encouraged to share more information as we strive to document the full extent of Moghul's disregard for property tax payments.

So far, properties provided to me in Minneapolis that bear the Moghul name have only been delinquent when Bashir is listed as an owner or taxpayer. That's not the case in Douglas County, WI. Fasil Moghul is behind on property taxes on several lots as well. It is my contention that Fasil is somehow related in both familial and business relations to Bashir Moghul. That belief is at least somewhat upheld by the mailing address listed on the Douglas County website for Fasil: 648 Iona Ln, Roseville MN.

05-805-02594-01 owes taxes for two years at $447.3709-809-03483-00 owes taxes for two years at $649.11 (Nazir Moghul is listed as a previous owner of this property)01-801-01879-00 owes taxes for two years at $636.8805-805-01270-00 owes taxes for two years at $732.46

Owing only $2,465.82 over two years in Douglas County, it's clear Fasil has some catching up to do before reaching the depths of tax delinquency that Bashir has. Looking at the previous owners listed on many of the properties that come up under the "Moghul" search term, there are a series of incestuous real estate transactions that have taken place between Bashir, Fasil, Nazir, and Shaista Moghul. According to the notice posted at 2030 Willow Ave N, Bashir has until April 7, 2010 to become current on property taxes or make other payment plans. Otherwise he will lose at least one rental license, and hopefully two or more.

This blog urges city officials to NOT accept a payment arrangement from Bashir Moghul. If he retains any rental licenses in the city of Minneapolis, he should be forced to disclose ALL properties in which he has an ownership interest and prove that taxes on all properties have been paid up through the end of 2009. Furthermore, he should not be allowed to simply transfer ownership or otherwise have another family member assume control of these rental properties unless the same terms are met: full disclosure of all properties owned in this country, and proof that taxes are paid through 2009 on all of them. Anything less will merely be the equivalent of playing shuffleboard on the Titanic. It might look like somebody's winning but eventually it will all end up underwater.

Since these properties are in Superior, let's change the ship in the previous analogy to the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Marion County in Indiana makes it rather difficult to gather this information (some sites make you pay and others are downright horrible to navigate), but I was able to drudge this up for the Indianapolis properties:

Since your other Bashir post has slipped down the page, I'll post this here. 2131 Lyndale is another property you spoke about with back taxes. Today I had several calls about people moving into this place last night and what appears to be dealing well underway today. We will be watching and calling. This really is too bad, since most of street dealers on that corner had been driven out. Now we have to start all over again.

It is sad to say, but Wisconsin has A HELLUVA LOT over Minnesota. For example, we can go into the DMV, pay something like four bucks, and have our drivers license spit out of a machine on the spot. When I moved to MN and found out it would be MAILED to me, I thought to myself, "What??? That is what WI did like 10 years ago." Superior is about the most backwards and run down city you could imagine (even though it's my home and I love it) and yet we've had comingled recycling for something like a decade while MPLS is still sorting. We can buy liquor on Sundays. Our kids can drink in bars if with with a parent (or married). Until I moved to MPLS, I thought it was common for a business to accept Canadian currency. Building permits are a relatively new thing and not required unless there is an addition (NOT to say I would suggest this for N MPLS!) Law enforcement in townships is elected (and we typically elect the town drunk so that we can do anything we want - LOL) Seriously though, in a big city, there is need for heightened control and requirements. But you gotta love Superior and Wisconsin. All of the lax (or nonexistent rules - one of my friends from California refers to Wisconsin as "North Mexico." Hell, you don't even have to have car insurance there. When I lived in Superior, I routinely had friends stopped in Duluth and had to have tow trucks pull them to the WI side of the bridge where they would simply just unhook and you were free to go. Not sure if all of this is right, but gotta love "North Mexico!"

Word has it that city is carefully building a case against Mr. Moghul. They have to patiently develop a strong case that will lead to the revocation of all of his rental license, something that is not easy.

Their advice is to keep calling 311 on any problems at his properties.

There have been recent reports that certain banks have been contacting rental property owners such as Bashir Moghul directly to sell foreclosures directly to them without putting them on the market. Franklin Bank is one such bank. Moghul has been rumored to purchase properties for as low as $5000 which have quickly become run down rentals. Somebody needs hold these banks accountable!!!

We live next door to one of his fine properties in North Minneapolis. The place is always in need of repair, and we are constantly calling the cops on the residents due to various "shenanigans" (fighting, underage parties, etc.)